Shoshone Deity Huge Empire Challenge Series!

[yung.carl.jung]

If you don't care about hurting your victory time then definitely settle those 2 remaining spots. Better now than later

Actually now that I think about it it probably makes no difference at all in which of the two cities you end up building the NC, they're about equal in hammers and food, just that the capital will have a little more lategame food from grassland farms and the second city will have more hammers due to farm plains.

 

[danaphanous]

If you don't care about hurting your victory time then definitely settle those 2 remaining spots. Better now than later

Yes sir! I'm putting off the other national wonders for a bit anyway, maybe I can buy these cities up to speed if I improve my economy. Oxford may go towards rocketry or something far later--we'll see. My current targets for war expansion are Venice, Korean lands, and Spain if our relationship sours naturally. Too big a diplo penalty to attack her now. I will probably liberate Valletta when I build a few ships or have artillery but it's dangerous terrain right now.

In an optimal game (which my audience voted against on Part 6) I would have stopped at 8-9 cities and not even hit the happiness crunch or growth problems I just had before order. I was inspired by docbud's dare to toe the line and build as big an empire as I could while still winning and 10 was all I could manage without major unhappiness or falling behind on science till around now. Right now if I turtled at 10 cities I could probably launch the ship by Turn 260-270 no problem from past experience, not sure what it will be now. I'll have to keep an eye on the progress of the AI to see what I can do while still winning. I'm guessing as long as I don't fall farther behind I should win due to lab rush and scientist saving.

 

[Iamteehee]

I'm reasonably sure that the order cost reduction is multiplicative with the mercantilism/BB cost reduction.

 

[danaphanous]

I'm reasonably sure that the order cost reduction is multiplicative with the mercantilism/BB cost reduction.

oh ok! So the effective discount on buildings more like 50% after order and mercantilism and 43% after Big Ben. Still pretty good but makes picking up Big Ben less valuable since it only helps an additional 7%. I honestly never did the math. However BB, like mercantilism is a discount on everything so with all 3 we're looking at: 42.7% cost building purchases, and 63.7% cost unit purchases. I'll probably still try for all 3 but the AI love all the wonders this game...even Pyramids went turn 50 or so, compliments of huge maps I guess xD

Part 15 up! Today we finish a perfectly timed world's fair, fight off the second Mongol invasion, and industrialize!

Part 15: Cultural Shenanigans

By the way guys, it is becoming increasingly difficult to accomplish a decent number of turns. I've been playing till I passed certain landmarks in my plan to make sure each episode was interesting. Recently this has resulted in a rate of about 6-8 turns per episode, but episodes have been getting longer with this plan. They now take over 45 minutes each. I am considering switching back to 30 minute episodes and just increasing the frequency from 3 a week to maybe 5 a week. Thoughts? Would you guys even have time to keep up if I did that much? I'm really wanting to see what happens next so I wouldn't mind playing a bit more frequently. Without recording I probably would have finished this game a week ago.

 

[danaphanous]

Part 16 is done! A lot of planning and preparing this episode for the big wave of policies and upcoming of order adoption I'll get soon! And I decided it's time my people learned about buying and selling.

Part 16: Marketing!

This episode is the last super-long one. Up to this point I've been playing to a clear stopping point and trying to accomplish a decent number of turns. I'll still try to do that but 50 minutes is a bit ridiculous. I had one viewer ask that I shorten the episodes because it's too long to focus on. So, I'm switching back to 25-30 minute episodes again. This may mean we accomplish only a few turns some episodes with War or a lot of management. And I would like to keep playing several hours a week so I may just increase the frequency of episodes. At my current rate I could make 5-6 a week of this shorter style. What do you guys think? Is that too many, would you have time to keep up with that frequency? Tell me your thoughts!

Also, I'm wanting to play some more on a new game now that this one is in the later eras. I will definitely play Shoshone Empires to completion but I'm wanting to start a new game to enjoy the early eras as well. I can record it if you guys like, I have several fun ideas. Would you guys be interested in 2 series staggered so that one is in the early eras and one the later? That's probably how it would turn out.

 

[Volcanon]

Bro, not enough cities!

You should forward settle Ottomans to the northeast. Suleiman never backstabs anybody ;p

 

[danaphanous]

Bro, not enough cities!

You should forward settle Ottomans to the northeast. Suleiman never backstabs anybody ;p

Excellent advice, Suleiman is clearly to be trusted having attacked his other 3 neighbors and all but crippling two of them. I will get on this strat ASAP and be sure to leave the border unguarded since!

But in all seriousness, you'll see some expansion soon--just through war since I'm running out of spots and new cities are a big handicap this late. I just finished recording the start of the first violent expansion campaign! You'll see it soon when I get time to finish the editing.

 

[danaphanous]

Part 17 and Part 18 are out! We time the last of the critical policies we wanted in Commerce and Rationalism right before adopting order and then start the offensive!

Episodes will now be between 15-30 minutes as discussed.

Part 17: Policy Rush

Part 18: Ordered Empire

Also, AI pushed through arts funding around turn 160 so the finish time on science will definitely be slower by a dozen turns or so. Doesn't matter since it will be for AI too, but just thought I'd let you guys know. More time to build the empire! I may eventually work on repealing it but nearly everyone loves it and I don't have the WC clout yet.

 

[danaphanous]

Hey guys I'm back! Sorry for the break on the forums, I was at a work conference in Florida this past week and had to pre-record some episodes. I hope the series was still interesting and I've got some big plans for the channel and a fun new series I'm considering starting this week! I discuss the details in part 20!

These two episodes we score worker's faculties, conquer our first Korean city, turn our empire on fast growth, and experience the strangest gold fluctuations I've ever seen. RIP economy. I gotta get this under control haha. xD

Part 19: Korean Conquests!
Part 20: Phantom Gold + NEW SERIES ANNOUNCEMENT!

I am missing playing the early game and have decided I want to start a new series to stagger episodes with Shoshone Empires now that it is slowing down in the later eras! Since most of my viewers mentioned loving watching me play and strategize in the early game, my idea is to play a Hotseat Game vs. myself where I play 4 human players on Deity vs. AI. For each one I'll choose a different starting tree (Tradition, Liberty, Honor, and Piety) going for different VC and strategy so you'll get to see 4 starts and approaches in one game and how they measure up to each other! Let me know in the video comments what you think of this idea, which civs you'd like me to play, and name suggestions! Thanks so much for the support everyone! I really appreciate it!

P.S: Would it be more fun for me to go random civs and adapt to what I get or pick them ahead of time?

 

[choraltrickster]

That idea sounds awesome! Can't wait.

Still trying to catch up viewing and commenting--busy time--but I'll get caught up! Loving it

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[danaphanous]

Awesome, glad a couple people are excited! I still need 2 more civs for the tournament, one viewer has asked for Netherlands and I've chosen Maya. That leaves two more recommendations, if anyone has a civ they want to see in the 4-strategy battle let me know! I will need a wide and early aggression civ.

Part 21 is out! Finally get past our gold problems and put growth to the max! Venice has fixed their tiles as well (finally) so it's pillage time!

Part 21: All-Out Growth

 

[choraltrickster]

Awesome, glad a couple people are excited! I still need 2 more civs for the tournament, one viewer has asked for Netherlands and I've chosen Maya. That leaves two more recommendations, if anyone has a civ they want to see in the 4-strategy battle let me know! I will need a wide and early aggression civ.

Part 21 is out! Finally get past our gold problems and put growth to the max! Venice has fixed their tiles as well (finally) so it's pillage time!

Part 21: All-Out Growth

Assyria would be great!

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[shaglio]

I will need a wide and early aggression civ.

Iroquois?

 

[danaphanous]

Yeah Assyria is fairly straightforward for early war. I can add them on the list for my warmonger/honor player. Actually they synergize very well with the discipline bonus on top of siege tower bonuses. Cities fall so fast!

Shaglio, do you mean Iroquois for my liberty/wide player? That could work. I've heard a lot of players say they are "weaker" solely because they don't like the longhouse, but I like them and would love to play them. They can work well.

I'll try to get the first episode out in the next day or two! I'm trying to pick a good, descriptive, catchy name for the series. Any ideas? I was thinking something like "Four Opener Strategies - Deity Player Battle" or "War of the Starting Trees (Deity)".

 

[shaglio]

Shaglio, do you mean Iroquois for my liberty/wide player? That could work. I've heard a lot of players say they are "weaker" solely because they don't like the longhouse, but I like them and would love to play them. They can work well.

I guess I misunderstood you. When you said you "need a wide and early aggression civ" I didn't realize you were looking for 2 civs. I thought you were looking for 1 civ that was both "wide" and into "early aggression." AI Iroquois always seems to spam the map with cities galore and their Mohawk Warrior seems good for early warfare.

 

[danaphanous]

That's fine, I may still choose them. I like their combo too. There's nothing to say I won't do early war with my wide player, and I haven't played them in a while. Their abilities take a bit of finesse to use optimally so they should make for a good game. I've always preferred interesting, over easy civs and abilities. The longhouse actually can be pretty good with liberty. Frequently you can't grow fast midgame anyway due to happiness so having all that extra production is really a great midgame bonus! I hope I get some forest resources, longhouse deer are so nice! And you can feed the couple cities you do want to keep growing. I love the forest road ability and Mohawks. Very nice they don't require iron too, could be great for some midgame raiding as forests are great for defense against AI.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I am missing playing the early game and have decided I want to start a new series to stagger episodes with Shoshone Empires now that it is slowing down in the later eras! Since most of my viewers mentioned loving watching me play and strategize in the early game, my idea is to play a Hotseat Game vs. myself where I play 4 human players on Deity vs. AI. For each one I'll choose a different starting tree (Tradition, Liberty, Honor, and Piety) going for different VC and strategy so you'll get to see 4 starts and approaches in one game and how they measure up to each other! Let me know in the video comments what you think of this idea, which civs you'd like me to play, and name suggestions! Thanks so much for the support everyone! I really appreciate it!

P.S: Would it be more fun for me to go random civs and adapt to what I get or pick them ahead of time?

that sounds amazing, I'm loving it

I was thinking about maybe Rome for a wide Civ, if not them then Persia, Celts or Egypt would be neat

 

[danaphanous]

Ah! Slightly too late, I would love to play all of those guys at some point though, especially Persia and Egypt which I have less practice with.

Anyway, I did the first recording for the new series yesterday evening and posted it up this morning. Looks to be a very interesting tournament with a wide range of starts! Don't get too mad at me about micro mistakes this game because I'm sure I'll make them. I've never been perfect focusing on many things at once, I already noticed a mistake in the first 10 turns. But this will probably make it more interesting and challenging! Also from your posts you have a bit more warmonger experience then me, so if you have any tips or advice as I play Assyria I'd love to hear it. Utilizing the siege towers seems straightforward. Do you usually go for melee attack bonuses or a 2nd cover promotion for survivability? I was thinking 2nd cover might be better since the upgrades are all ranged and they'll last longer.

The new series is called 4-Strategy Deity Showdown: Part 1 here

A few things I wanted viewer suggestions on:

- On the 4-player hotseat game, obviously turns take 4x as long. I had originally hoped to do 10-turn 20-minute episodes until turn 100 but that doesn't seem possible for me. I can do 10-turn 30-35 minute episodes or I could do 5-8 turn 20-25 minute episodes, which would you guys prefer? Either way this will be a long series so I'll put out 3 episodes a week.

- I've been alternating between 3-4 ambient tracks I composed for a while, a seashore with waves, a windy forest, and birds from australian forest. Do you guys like these and what would you think about 5-second intro/outro tracks? Would that feel more professional or not really add anything? I'm still trying to settle into my groove and save some adobe premiere templates.

- I've also noticed several new subscribers come in recently from outside civfanatics. I am wondering if I should take down the 2 shoshone videos with audio problems as I don't want the quality to scare people off now that I've fixed all those problems. Thoughts? Is that a good idea or would it break continuity? No one commented on those episodes but no one said anything negative either...

 

[yung.carl.jung]

1. I prefer slightly longer episodes, 30 mins sound good!
2. I don't think intros are professional at all, but it's your call. I like the ambient tracks.
3. I don't see a problem with taking them down

 

[danaphanous]

^^^

Alright great, because 30 minutes feels better for a gameplay sitting anyway. I was having trouble matching intro/outro tracks to the civ feel anyway, though when you watch part 1 of the new series you'll notice I put a flute track as an experiment. It worked ok. And the bad audio videos are now down with apologies on the subsequent videos and a 2-3 sentence summary of what was missed. Thanks for the feedback yung.